Energy Research

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Energy Research

• At the University of Southampton

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Biomass
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Energy from biomass

• Joint Research Council funded project on Energy
  production on farms through anaerobic digestion
  (0.75M, 2007-10) www.AD4RD.soton.ac.uk
• EU FP6 CROPGEN Renewable Energy from Crops and
  Agro-wastes (2.5 M, 2004-7). 12 partners in 6
  countries www.cropgen.soton.ac.uk
• Focus on integrated farming systems for
  sustainable food and fuel production
• Integration with biorefineries and aquatic
  biomass production

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Bioenergy

• Use of trees for second generation
  lignocellulosic feedstock for heat, power and
  liquid transportation
• Genetic improvement
• Environmental sustainability LCA ,
  biodiversity, water, climate change
• Whole system research
• Recent Funding 4.5 million internationally
  competitive
• UKERC Funding Bioenergy
• Member of The Porter Alliance for Bioenergy
• TSEC-BIOSYS Whole Systems analysis of UK
  Bioenergy
• FP6 Funding - POPYOMICS
• FP6 EVOLTREE
• FP7 Funding ENERGYPOPLAR
• Department of Energy, DEFRA, BBSRC

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Energy from municipal and industrial wastes

• Over 1.5M funding in past 4 years (Defra, EPSRC)
• Focus on AD process optimisation for energy
  production and digestate quality
• kinetic studies, microbiology, modelling
• From laboratory studies to monitoring of
  full-scale plants (Biocycle)
• Leading role in evaluating resource recovery
  potential from food wastes and establishing mass
  and energy balances
• Future plans include improved fundamental
  understanding of factors causing process
  instability in high-nitrogen wastes

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Algal biomass

• Wide expertise across the university relevant to
  bioalgae for biofuel
• Biology, Molecular Biology, Marine Biology
• Oceanography
• Engineering Science
• Environmental Sciences
• Huge global potential to exploit algae -
  Southampton is UK-leading

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Energy in the Built Environment
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Built EnvironmentFaçade Systems / Refurbishment
/ Monitoring / Surveys / Eco-cities
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Climate ChangeClimate Weather File Generation
Tool - CCWeatherGen
www.energy.soton.ac.uk/ccweathergen
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Combustion
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Clean Combustion Technologies from W to GW

• Current Research Areas
• Biomass combustion
• Hydrogen combustion
• High-efficiency hybrid combustion systems
• Zero/low emission combustion systems
• Microengines
• Post-combustion carbon capture

Southampton leads UK Combustion Consortium EPSRC
grant No. EP/D080223/1 (06/2006 - 06/2009) EPSRC
grant No. GR/R66197/01 (03/2002 - 09/2005)
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Gas Turbine Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Hybrid Power
System EPSRC grant No. EP/E011640/1 (03/2007 -
02/2010)
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell 45 efficiency
Gas Turbine 35 efficiency
Hybrid System 70 efficiency
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Distribution
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Electrical Transmission and Distribution
industry funding

• National Grid c1.2M of current research
  including on-line condition monitoring of
  transmission assets and improved asset rating
  methodologies.
• EDF Energy and PPA Energy Analysis of
  distribution cable on-line monitoring data.
• Commercial testing (c150 days per year) is
  undertaken for a range of companies, including
  Network Rail, National Grid and distribution
  asset manufacturers.
• National Grid leadership of tower climate
  proofing programme

Main Hall and HV supplies
Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory consists of
two HV halls, a dielectric materials laboratory
and forensic facilities.
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Transmission and Distribution EPSRC funding

• EP/D034531/1 Enhanced Management and Performance
  for a Sustainable UK Energy Infrastructure
  (2.4M).
• EP/F065973/1Mapping the Underworld Multi-Sensor
  Device Creation, Assessment, Protocols (782k).
• Technology Strategy Board TS/G000239/1
  Sustainable Power Cable Materials Technologies
  with Improved Whole Life Performance (EPSRC
  185k)

90kV AC Submarine Cable Test Loop
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Environmental Impacts
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Environmental and Social Impact Assessment

• Geographic Information and geospatial analysis
  for site selection and analysis
• Contingency planning and environmental
  sensitivity mapping, monitoring
• Assessment methodologies / cumulative assessment
• Oil and Gas (Shell, Elf, Occidental, Chevron
  Texaco, Petronas)
• Onshore and offshore Grid / cable site and route
  selection
• UK Waters, Barents Sea, Angola, Dubai, Bahrain

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Bird collision risks

• Bird collisions with wind turbines rarely
  significant in national population terms but
  highly emotive and can cause local declines
• New tower and blade designs have reduced impacts
  but collisions cannot be designed out
  completely
• Best practice is to assess potential impacts
  through local study of bird movements and by
  modelling species-specific collision risks
• Turbine site choice often key factor.

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Ecohydraulics

• Small, meso, and mega-scale hydropower
  development
• Current funded projects
• - EU low-head hydropower
• - Swedish Hydropower Industry
• - Environment Agency
• - EPSRC / ESRC

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Fuel cells
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Fuel Cells

• Development of Pt-M catalysts for oxygen
  reduction and hydrogen oxidation in PEM fuel
  cells (Johnson Matthey/EPSRC)
• Production and characterization of novel, high
  surface area platinum deposits on MEAs (Johnson
  Matthey/EPSRC)
• Synthesis and characterization of titanium
  dioxide nanotubes and their Metallization (Royal
  Society)
• Development of Biofuel cells (Dstl/EPSRC)
• Improvements in Borohydride Fuel Cells (DStl)
• Reaction Engineering Environment in Redox Flow
  cells (Regenesys Technologies)

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Gas Hydrates
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Gas hydrate A new energy source?

• Hydrates an ice-like compound, found only in
  restricted conditions, such as Artic or deep
  ocean sediments recently found in Eastern
  Margin of India
• Hydrate contains large volumes of methane gas
  that has the potential to be future energy
  resource
• quantification and location of hydrate uncertain
  - How can this potential be realised

Burning hydrate sample
Recovered samples of hydrate
X-ray image of recovered sample (Off India)
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Assessment of physical properties help
understand impact of gas hydrates

• World leading research on dynamic properties of
  hydrate bearing soils
• laboratory testing of both artificial and natural
  sediments
• numerical modelling of large scale behaviour
• International research collaborations with
• National Oceanographic Centre, Fugro McClelland
  Geoscience (USA), Geotek (UK), Oil and Natural
  Gas Corporation (India), CISRO (Australia)

Hydrate sample in Gas hydrate resonant column
apparatus
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Microgeneration
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MicrogenerationUK Micro Wind Trial / Urban
Microgeneration
gt 5kWp
lt 5kWp
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Microgeneration photovoltaic and wind
Solar Cell Development Grid Connected PV
Wind Full economic value, Building Integrated PV
multi function offset cost
Standalone PV Transport refrigeration, Developing
country applications
Other Research Areas Matching generation with
demand, social impacts of technology, user
behaviour
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Nuclear
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SPRing Sustainability Assessment of Nuclear
Power An Integrated Approach

• 3 partner universities awarded more than 2m over
  3 years.
• 12 consortium partners from business and
  industry.
• SPRing brings together some of Britains leading
  experts on politics and governance, nuclear
  energy, environmental science and business and
  engineering.

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About SPRing

• SPRing examines the interaction between the
  politics and technology and the sustainability of
  nuclear energy.
• The British Government is committed to nuclear
  power, SPRing will place academic research at the
  heart of the policy debate.
• SPRing will provide decision makers with tools to
  make informed, defensible decisions based on
  evidence.

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Offshore wind
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Offshore wind turbines capabilities

• Farm Installation and Environmental Impact
• wind resources, site specific EI, installation
  techniques, foundations, effects on navigation,
  regulatory regime
• Maritime Design of wind turbine and support
  structure
• fluid-structure interaction, stochastic
  wind-wave-current loadings, shallow water
  effects, computational engineering, design
  optimisation, unsteady gust response of blades,
  advanced composites, gearbox design.
• Enhancing system availability and Energy Capture
• Intelligent structural health monitoring, smart
  structures, bio-inspired corrosion protection
  systems, subsea cabling, generator design and
  inter-connects.

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Offshore wind turbines projects

• Data management for COWRIE-Collaborative Offshore
  Wind Research Into the Environment
• With Vestas Technology Ltd/SEEDA, examining
  unsteady aerodynamic ,gust response and noise of
  wind turbines.
• Lloyds Register University Technology Centre in
  Hydrodynamics, Hydroelasticity and Mechanics of
  Composites (1M)
• ISSC Committee V.4 on Ocean Wind and Wave Energy
• With RAL on application of infra-red and acoustic
  emission techniques to blades and Aalborg
  University on thermal degradation of sandwich
  structures
• Electrical Systems and Subsea Cables SUPERGEN
• Structural Health Monitoring and Corrosion
  protection national centre for advanced
  tribology

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Storage
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Accelerated Discovery of Lithium Battery
Materials (GR/S27238/01)
performance

• Novel low temperature synthesis of LiFePO4
  materials
• High Throughput Measurements for material
  optimisation
• Results show 90 energy recovery during
  charge/discharge cycle
• This shows that the Li-ion battery is the most
  efficient way of storing energy on the large scale

Composition
64 cells under test
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Spinouts arising from EPSRC projects
Liquid crystal template nanotechnology For
batteries and supercapacitors
8M capital, 17 employees
1.5 ?m
High throughput materials screening For H
storage and fuel cells.
10M capital, 25 employees
Contracts from TSB, Shell, Toyota
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Transport
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CiViTAS sustainable transport in cities

• EU initiative supporting European cities to
  install cleaner and more energy efficient
  transport
• Includes 59 cities across Europe involving over
  700 transport measures. These include
• Energy efficiency in public transport fleets (25
  measures)
• Hybrid electric vehicles (22)
• Biofuels and gas in public private fleets (73)
• Car pooling and sharing (39)
• Walking and cycling (48)

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• Fuel consumption can be improved 10-20 just by
  changing how a vehicle is driven
• Key areas to change are acceleration, gear
  changing and braking
• Other benefits relate to
• Reduction in accidents
• Ride comfort
• Vehicle wear and tear
• CO2 and local air quality pollutants
• No overall increase in journey time
• Current advice on how to drive to reduce fuel
  consumption is generalised to cover all vehicles

Area of best fuel consumption
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Wave Energy
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ANACONDA all-rubber MW wave power device

• A flooded rubber tube in the water, anchored head
  to sea, designed so that the speed of bulge waves
  matches the speed of water waves.

The Carbon Trusts independent consultants give
Anaconda their full approval. Their cost
estimate 6.6p per kWh, much lower that all
rival systems.
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ANACONDA all-rubber MW wave power device

• Dimensions of a 1MW Anaconda 200m long, 7m
  diameter, 12cm wall
• Research on the highly novel hydrodynamics of the
  Anaconda at Southampton is supported by
• EPSRC (2008-10),
• Atkins
• Checkmate SeaEnergy
• www.bulgewave.comwww.checkmateuk.com/seaenergy

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Harnessing Ocean Energy Wave Energy
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Unrivalled testbed sites
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Eco Island Project
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Energy Research

• At the University of Southampton

• Biomass
• Built Environment
• Combustion
• Distribution
• Environmental Impacts
• Fuels Cells
• Gas Hydrates

• Microgeneration
• Nuclear
• Offshore Wind
• Storage
• Transport
• Wave Energy
• Unrivalled Testbed Sites